J.K. Simmons Reveals How Much We’ll See of Commissioner Gordon in Justice League

With the groundwork for the Justice League film laid (however clumsily) by Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the DC Extended Universe is just about ready to break out.

That, of course, means we’ll be seeing many more of the characters who make up each league member’s individual universes, which includes Gotham’s Commissioner James Gordon—a role that recently went to Whiplash’s J.K. Simmons.

But there’s a lot of story to tell with many of these characters and, quite frankly, never enough screen time to do it with. So while many fans are eager to see their favorite supporting characters, including Simmon’s Gordon, take root in DC’s team-up roll-out, how much of each character we see will depend a lot on director Zack Snyder’s broader vision for the film. And it appears, according to a recent interview Simmons did with DP/30, that fans of the head of Gotham’s police force shouldn’t expect too much of a presence from him in the first Justice League.

“I don’t get started on that until June, and my part in the first one is very small,” the Oscar winner said. “I’m excited to be playing that iconic character in that iconic series. I’m going into a thing that hopefully will be two, three, four, maybe more movies for me, and my part in the first one is really very small.”

Simmons’ comments suggest we may see the commissioner not only in multiple Justice League films, but also in the upcoming Batman standalone film starring (and directed by) Ben Affleck.

Simmons went on to briefly discuss his preparation for the role, and how needing a bunch of screen time isn’t entirely necessary for such an iconic comic character, at least in the beginning. “Obviously, we know who the guy is,” Simmons said. “We know his whole backstory, based on the comic book. So, I’m just gonna finish doing my research on that. And probably not watch the other actors who have played the part, because that is kind of intimidating, honestly, and I don’t think I would find that to be productive. So, I’ll do my take.” We trust that, however small his initial role may be, Simmons will make it count.

Justice League: Part 1 is due out on Nov. 17, 2017.